"I want you to move to California for yourself"

Well that was a nice little break wasn't it? :) Things have been weird, but I want to start writing again so, here I am.

They all look so happy pre-squirrel attacks

So on a lighter note, we've been quite the outdoorsy set lately! Really sprucing up our back patio and this past weekend we had our Wilderness Survival Class. I wanted this to be a picture heavy post but as I'm coming to realize more and more, iPhones are the WORST. They seem really cool and awesome. Until they cost a million dollars and you can't do something as simple as rotate a picture on your computer because Apple and PC's refuse to get alone. Of course. So I'll just post the handful of pictures my iPhone has deemed acceptable. Son of a.... (EDIT - Using Ed's Mac, I'm attempting to post what seem to be rightly oriented pictures... Success! So I'll also update my post on my 10k with a couple other pictures if you are interested!)

My happy place

Anyways. The patio (and upstairs study) gardening has been more amazing than we could've imagined. The potato box is exploding in general. We had to pull up one plant that wasn't performing very well and up came the CUTEST baby potato you have ever seen. It was about the size of my thumb nail. I have picture but I couldn't rotate it... grrr... The rosemary and basil are fighting to hang on, and I'm not sure why they are struggling so much. The other herbs are going gangbusters. Ed also finished making me a beautiful new table so I can sit and have coffee or read during the day by all the lovely plants. We moved our indoor tomato plants out next to it as well and I looooove the smell of tomatos. With my lovely colored lights it reminds me of Mom's, which is a very good feeling indeed.

Our adorable baby potato!

We've been waging a war against the squirrels here. I'm partly to blame because I refuse to give up my wonderful bird feeders, thereby disposing of the cats day-long entertainment. But that means that all the little seeds that drop down from the feeders scatter everywhere and attract everything onto the patio and also into all the plants on the patio. Several of the herbs have met a grisly end, uprooted by these chubby grey squirrels who are truly very UN-afraid of us. If I had any reservations about getting a BB gun before, those reservations were gone with the last murdered parsley plant. We're trying a less violent option of chicken wire first so think happy thoughts for it or these squirrels are going to have a lot more than poor defenseless plants to contend with... In fact, we have been training Rosie pretty intensely lately... Hmmmm.....

Awesome path up to the training area... left everyone pretty winded

Now about the Wilderness Training! We had to drive up into the Santa Cruz Mountains, always terrifying for me in any car because the roads are so tiny and the drops are straight down and extremely far. I highly recommend anyone who wants to visit California that they must make a trip into the woods. It's stunning. The trees go on for ages. Everything is just so much bigger than on the East coast. Too bad I'm too terrified to drive the truck up those tiny roads or I'd visit more often! The training took place on a boy scout reservation high up this windy, woodsy trail following Boulder Creek. Our teacher Jack, who was the real deal, was my sister's age and had spent many a night out in the wild. He said he lived outdoors for a year, and was very familiar with spending the night in a debris hut. What is a debris hut you might ask? It's exactly what you think it is. And we got to make them during our shelter training. (You can see Ed enjoying our group's shelter at the bottom of this post)

We also learned how to make spoons and bowls out of pieces of wood, and then how to boil water using rocks. One of the sillier, but still fun and useful parts of class was learning how to stalk prey in the woods (they do offer a traps class but they had to separate it from their usual stuff because people kept trapping and injuring house pets - yikes) But my favorite part was making fire with the Bow Drill technique! Muahahaha! Let's be up front and honest here. Ed did all the hard work.We tandem whittled a spindle and a fireboard and a handhold, and notched a bow. Ed did the manual labor after that in terms of burning holes and creating the dust coal and I made a beautiful tinder ball (blame iphone for the lack of pictures) that nurtured that coal until it burst into flames! I learned two things from this experience. One, Ed and I will not die during the Zombie Apocalypse or Hunger Games situations of the future. Two, people do not know nearly enough about survival or basic respect for nature. It was really good to get out there and learn things that as Jack and his co-teacher Mark put it, are skills that our ancestors have used and passed on for thousands upon thousands of years. 

This was the insanely hard part, using the bow to make the spindle rotate until wood dust collected and then smoked itself into a tiny coal

My beautiful tinder bundle :)

Finally! After a lot of sweat and a little blood, no tears, we got a coal!

Nurturing the coal in the tinder like a crazy person

FIRE!

And Ed decided he could live here happily ever after :)

"I'm running through the fire"

I survived!!! :) 

(Updated with new pictures!) It was such a cool experience! So many people, all shapes and sizes and ages (thank god), and it was a really nice course. Starting with a kind of intense hill up to the golden gate bridge, then across the bridge and back, then back down to the path along Crissy Field and back to the start.

Foggy, chilly morning

The runners were all nice and considerate, we were in the back with the other run/walk/slow-pacers so there was no real pressure.

The 10-milers taking off! The guy in front was running 5min miles

Prepared to carry me thru it :)

Nerdy lookin and ready!

You can soooorta see the starting line by the American flag

About 5 miles in I thought I was done for and was having some real troubling left hip flexor pain... but by then you could see the finish line and it was just ridiculous to not try and push through.

Crossing the bridge

Impromptu photo session - thank you Ed :)

The end is soooo cloooose you could see the little white tents of salvation in the distance!

SUCCESS!

Chillin cause he runs this distance every day....

With a couple bouts of walking during mile 5, I was able to run the last mile and ran through the VERY LOUD finish line right during the bridge of Foo Fighter's "Walk" which was SO AMAZING. I use that song to push myself hard in the gym and so running across the finish line to 'I'm dancing on my grave, and running through the fire...' was just so perfect. I got the chills from the music and everyone cheering. They even announced my name saying 'Great job Carly!' over the loud speakers. I wanted to cry I was so happy :) Ed was really sweet and ran my pace the whole time and even took time to take a picture of me on the bridge. I asked him how he was a couple times, projecting my struggle onto him, and then I would immediately remember he runs about 10 miles every Sunday now so this 6.2 was a walk in the park. We finished in 1hr20mins or so and I had guessed based on some charts I found online that it would take me about 1hr45m based on decreasing speed per mile, so I'm very pleased I beat my assumed time.

Thanks guys! :)

We had parked about 1.5 miles away, so including our 3mi walk to and fro, yesterday was a total of 9.2 miles. Longest time on foot to date, and longest run for sure. I'm just so happy I did it and that it was really enjoyable. Like I've told people before, Ed did not have to carry me across the finish line and that's pretty much all I can ask for! Thank you to everyone, and there were so many of you, that said such wonderful kind supportive things on here and Facebook about the race. It means the world to me and really makes me feel amazing! (I had other pictures but I can't figure out this iPhone. Stupid thing.)

Post-run... a pain like you would not believe. I just have to laugh about it now, but I was essentially walking like a robot because I could not get my muscles and joints to function after the hour long drive home from the race. Sleep jerks overnight were like little gunshots of pain to my ankles. My knees refused to ascend the stairs after feeding the cats this morning and I debated just sleeping on the couch to avoid the pain. That hip flexor issue I ran through has made it really difficult to lift my left leg for anything. Steps, walking, putting on pants, turning over in bed. I don't regret any of it and I know it'll hurt less each time I run. But I must say this is the most crippled I've been in ages. Tomorrow's a 3.5 mi run which sounds down right pleasant thinking about how much less sore I'll be!

In other news, I went back to the dentist and for those of you that don't know, apparently all of my teeth are falling out of my head. At least that's how I felt after my visit. 7 fillings on Saturday which left me shaking with anxiety and drooling (attractive, I know), with a sheet recommending a possible: 3 root canals if the fillings didn't go over well on some of those same teeth, 2 more fillings needed on the right side, and a crown on that same side. Good lord almighty. The best part of the post-race pain is the distraction from the mouth pain. But that is what I get for avoiding the dentist for about a decade. Yes. About a decade. He asked when was the last time I had work done, like my last fillings for example? And I literally had to say before the turn of the century. (EDIT: Ed would like me to also add that I could have said the turn of the millenium. oy!) Sad but true. Well, 7 fillings later with a huge rap sheet of future work, I've decided to forever keep my dentist appointments and floss like it's my favorite activity in the world.

I'd also like to take a minute to thank all of my friends and friends of my family who have expressed their sentiments about my Dad and Debbie and their troubles lately. He appreciates the support and regardless of what anyone thinks about all the things going on, it's no fun being the one under fire, and it is incredibly hard.

Rosie appreciating our t-shirts :)

"So lets get up, lets get on it"

You know that you had an amazing time when you can't even find the right words to start a post about how much fun you had. There just aren't any perfect words to describe how wonderful it was having some of my best buddies visit about a week ago now. Austin, Michelle, and Brian came to visit our side of the states and we sure painted the town red.

Michelle and Brian had been here before with Ed and me but for Austin this was a first time. We made the rounds to Muir woods and took a fantastic cruise around the bay and under the bridge. We wandered around Fisherman's Wharf, had Irish coffees at Buena Vista, got free chocolate from Ghiradelli, watched Ed swim in the freakin freezing cold bay along with the other nuts. Ate delicious ginormous Dungeness crabs.

We even got taken by a local scam artist who specializes in conning people looking for parking, later finding out he's even been in the paper. Bounced around Sonoma and had lunch at Apple HQ the day of the new iPad announcement. I think one of my favorite moments though was having dinner with Dad and Debbie - (Who generously lent us their car so we could all get around without having to throw Austin in the bed of the truck). Many bottles of wine and laughs and delicious food and just such a fun evening. It was all over way, way too fast and I cried like a baby on my way home from dropping them off at the airport.

There are so many details of the visit that would just seem ridiculous to put here, the main point of all of it being that it was just the greatest visit and I'm sure with the passing of time and idealization it will grow to seem like the greatest group of friends outing of all time. :) On the bright side, I seem to have finally conquered (well, learned to cope with it, at best) my fear of driving out here! I still miss my tiny civic like you wouldn't believe, but I drove all the way up to Mill Valley, crossing the bridge, and driving on 101 and 280 like a champ in our Taco (short for Ed's Toyota Tacoma... not to be mistaken for the delicious food).

Since they left it's been preeeetty quiet around these parts. I've been training a lot... now reader, do not misinterpret that as losing weight or getting faster. In my mind the only thing I've actually become really good at is forcing myself to continue running despite my wish to keel over and die 10 minutes in. So far I'm up to 35 minutes as my maximum... next Sunday I'm supposed to go for my first 40 minute run and I'm a bit terrified. My training mileage plan says I'm behind quite a bit... I should be running 4 miles continuously at this point and I've only come just past halfway to that. :-/ I must really buck up since I signed up for another 10K! Yeah, I'm riding this delusional training high as much as I can and trying to keep the motivation going. This one coming up is the Presidio 10K and you run along Crissy Field. There was a Groupon or LivingSocial deal for it so I thought why not! Pray for me.

I'm back on track with my reading goals too... I fell a bit behind caught up with visitors and those damned Game of Thrones books that just go on FOREVER. I love them, but Jesus. They are a lot. So I'm 12 books in now... I had a realization with Ed the other day. I have been SPOILED by my current and my previous library. The Mountain View, Reston and even Alexandria libraries have all been 800% more incredible than the Wheaton, Silver Spring and Kensington libraries. The quality, number and availability of books... having Kindle books readily available, easy online access, beautiful facilities...Moving back to libraries less awesome will be a tough pill to swallow for me. I know, I'm ridiculous, but reading is like food to me some days. It may be all I need that day.

Wedding plans are falling into place. Invites are in the works thanks to the amazing Joe Lamour who has patiently waited for text while I drag my feet with every task. The website is about 98% put together. It occurred to me that shortly I'll have to face the decoration of the barn and tables and what not... Deeeeep breaths. I wonder if other brides out there hate accomplishing any tasks because they know that will only lead to 7 more tasks that need immediate attention. Gretchen Rubin in The Happiness Project calls those kind of tasks 'boomerang tasks' and I swear that boomerang has been hitting me in the face a LOT.

Ed's friend Kirk visits next week and we're really looking forward to that. A couple of concerts lined up... Eric Hutchinson (I am sooooo excited for that!), Faderhead, Thomas Dolby, DJ Shadow possibly... lots of little activities to keep us bouncin' around out here.

Now to attend to these darn boomerangs...

"Girl you gonna show the world that something good can work"

Good grief. Yesterday was a great day, but it was also the worst. I was so convinced it was Thursday. I really committed to it. I was convinced all my favorite shows were coming on, I told Ed how excited I was for The Office and Parks and Recreation and how excited I was that tomorrow was the weekend. And worst of all, I did my workout like it was Thursday. Meaning, I was anticipating a day off. Monday and Friday I weight train and don't run. So I try to really push hard the day before those days off, knowing I'll have time to recover. Damn you fake Thursday!! My legs are killing me today and I still have to run. On the bright side, my running is going amazing. I was having some real problems with all the attachments in my right leg the past week, but that seems to have passed with a bunch of babying. I'm up to 24 minutes, non-stop, 3k. I actually hit the 3k mark yesterday and I did a little celebratory dance and fist pump while on the treadmill. I'm sure I looked ridiculous but you have to understand. I've never run so far or so long IN MY LIFE. I'm not one of those people that once could do this and am doing it again. This is brand new and amazing. And I'm super proud of myself and most of all, super grateful for Ed pushing me to do this. :)

Mom also said something interesting the other day, that weddings are the biggest motivators to lose weight and usually the most successful motivators. I cannot stress how LITTLE I think about the wedding. I actively avoid thinking about this wedding in hopes that some kind fairy godmother will step in and do everything for me and I can just show up and be all cute and surprised:

 'Wow! You did all this for little 'ole me?! I had no idea! You all are the sweetest!' 

Alas. I do not think this will happen. (...still hoping.) The thing that's really motivating me? The race. The idea that I am faced with an immutable task in May, that I have always wanted to be able to do, gets me running every time. 

So let's see what else can I fill you in on... Oh yes, I turned 26! :) Time flies by. It was a fantastic birthday, filled with unbelievably delicious meals, fun activities and even a couple free food items and drinks. And I even got carded! What more can a girl ask for? Ed was truly amazing. He even ordered the exact cake I wanted, Prinsesstårta (with orchids on it)!  We spent Saturday in Sonoma, wine tasting and eating at our favorite places and then went to a member's club party at Jacuzzi Winery. We went to Tyler Florence's restaurant downtown, Wayfare Tavern for dinner (having to battle the Chinese New Year parade, we even got stuck behind the floats!) And on the day of my birthday? We relaxed. I got to take a nap (my favorite thing ever), we had pho for lunch and for dinner went to a wonderful Italian restaurant in Palo Alto. It was just the greatest weekend. And my big surprise birthday present?? An ice cream maker!!! (also my favoritest thing ever) It was all perfect. :) 

Valentine's Day was likewise, perfect. We actually ended up staying in and having a lovely homemade meal and champagne. Ed brought me the most beautiful roses. And surprised me with the Voltaggio brother's cookbook! It's so far beyond our skill level, but hands down the most interesting cookbook we own now.

I know I've been terribly lax about writing here... . We've just had lots of activities involving food (We went to our first Michelin star restaurant last night! - the most interesting and creative dinner I've ever had - sorry Volt!) and exercise (training, training, training) and there's only so much people can read when it comes to those topics. Gets boring reeeeeal quick. Though... I've had a suggestion that I take on a challenge like Julie & Julia and work my way through a list of something. The list being the INSANE number of classes offered at the YMCA. If I can get myself to the first of these classes, I may endeavor to attack the list... we'll see. So I apologize in advance for possible overload of information about exercising! 

There should be many more exciting things to talk about coming... a wilderness survival class, another beekeeping class, trip to Monterrey, possible trip to a popular island with mai tai's? :) and some of my and Ed's best friends are coming to visit in March and my sister may come to see them too so that could be fodder for some great activities. I'm really looking forward to seeing friends from home and showing them around our nice little life here. 

"I'm an extraordinary machine"

Ok I'm gonna brag. And I'll admit I give people grief (silently and in my own head of course) when they brag. I don't care how much weight you've lost (I actually do and I'm jealous) or how far you can run (once again, jealous) or how much you enjoy your work out (super envious on that point). So it's been really odd for me to be on the other side of that for once. I'll be damned if I turn into one of those people who only talks about their exercises but I just HAD to come on here and tell the world that I am OFFICIALLY a runner! Like I mentioned last entry, my family and I have signed up for Bay to Breakers (this is so NSFW for the love of God, but you should absolutely do a google image search for Bay to Breakers if you're at home). So I've been training and following a plan Ed made up for me. You must understand, when I've 'run' in the past, it went something like this: walk for five minutes, and then run one minute and then walk one minute for about 30-40 minutes. This is not an ideal way to run a race. I don't know what got into me, but when Ed gave me my assignment, I said okay. And proceeded to run for 20+ minutes a day straight. No break. No slowing down. I've dreamed about running like this for so long...

The sheer freedom of lacing up your sneakers and just going somewhere from your own strength and determination... it's exhilarating! (Anyone else think of that ad they pitched in What Women Want? Mel Gibson will forever be associated with peaceful women's running) It's also appealing in that it's just one long meditation. An extended assignment in focus and clarity of thought. In her new book, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? Mindy Kaling (from The Office) talks about using elaborate revenge fantasies to get her through exercises. Turns out I like envisioning scenes from musicals, tv shows and books in great detail. If I start thinking about the fact that I'm working out or traveling or any thought at all about my actions I immediately start to feel exhausted and weak. So I just keep on trucking. I'm also kind of a baby in terms of working out without music... It's just so alien and barbaric that one would workout without any kind of distraction... But I've been doing that too. As much as I enjoy my scenes in my head, I've started testing out just being quiet and running. And that's not been awful either!

Ok that's enough exercise talk. I just wanted to tell the world how ecstatic I am to run finally. It's like learning how to do a cartwheel or something! (I have no idea how to do a cartwheel but since I've always wanted to do one and they look like so much fun, I imagine it's the best feeling in the world)

In other news, I'm plugging away at my reading challenge. The whole Game of Thrones series really slows me down, but I love it. I'll probably love it more when the show comes on again. I also picked up another book that really got me, Discovery of Witches, which is a trilogy, and has all that lovely romance and vampire-witch relations that I can never get enough of. I'm truly a sucker for vampires at the end of the day.

And! I've officially tried my hand at canning. It wasn't as hard or complicated as I thought. It WAS as messy as I was worried it would be. I have yet to taste my strawberry jam, but fingers crossed it's delicious. It's hard not to be delicious with bright berries and a metric ton of sugar added. 

Strawberry Jam! Hopefully edible...

Enjoying the day in Mountain View

I feel as if maybe in the first few months out here, I really kind of stalled. I just was dragging my feet and refusing to tackle all these dreams I had... maybe for fear of failure or because I was still bummed about moving? I still very dearly miss MD, my friends and family. But... I believe I'm finally seeing this as home? At least as in, this is Ed and I's space here. Our little corner of the world where we can and play with crazy cats and make potato bins (yeah, I'll post about that craziness next time), and I can address things I've always wanted to do, or just do better. It's a nice feeling :)

Cabernet flight at Savvy Cellars

Also one last little programming note - today is my stepmom's bday, and she and Dad are in Hawaii. I would like to express my happy birthday wishes to her along with a heaping dose of jealousy that we are not in Hawaii as well, snorkeling with dolphins, turtles and who knows what else :) Happy Birthday Debbie!

Brunch at Louis'

"My hands are shakin' from carrying this torch"

Well I jumped on here prepared to write about the joys of the holidays and I realized I'd fallen terribly behind on all my chores. Not chores of the household sort, but more like, wedding chores and writing chores... planning and self-betterment chores! Oh how they pile up and become an insurmountable obstacle to functioning like an adult.

I dutifully made breakfast, got Ed out the door, had my green tea, played my brain scan games, and then went to check my email. Somewhere around the twentieth junky-email cleared, I remembered I still had to write the caterer back and respond to Zach and Clay (of thebittenword.com, who were very sweet and helpful in giving advice about my wedding venue) and give them details and specifics and get to the nitty gritty of planning and making decisions... But then suddenly, out of the blue, I realized... you know I've always wanted to read the dictionary and I should really do that right now. It's quite urgent, really... And also! I think there are three dishes in the sink that need washing, and I could scrub the tile in the bathroom and also learn how to fold a fitted sheet.... all very, very pressing matters....

Essentially, it comes down to this one thing. I am the worst at making decisions. The. worst. I much prefer to be the person that offers a vast and eclectic array of choices and then someone else, wiser and more decisive can come in and make a well informed choice based on my research. I always enjoyed researching papers for school.... actual execution of the assignment was not my strongest suit (see all of my grades, ever). I was the ridiculous student who did ALL of the reading, but maybe half of the assignments. Excellent example, for AP World History in high school, junior year, I failed the class. Literally, failed. But I received a 4 on the test for the college credit! This is not necessarily a trait for bragging about... more a point of frustration. I am so envious of those who can execute. Those who do not get caught up in the details and mindlessness of little things. The doers of the world. Ed appears to be this way. He'll get up and do what he says he will without hesitation or delay and I'll congratulate him on his initiative and then go take a nap. Maybe futzing is in my genes? I know my mother and my Omi are futzers...I wonder if my sister futzes... she's always been more on the doer side of life.... I digress.

Today I am determined to be a doer. I already ordered some beautiful Christmas ornaments:

And I'm determined to continue on, ticking off things one by one on my long list, preparing for the onslaught of holiday activities. So even though I've managed to completely avoid writing about the holidays (as I'd intended!) I have at least accomplished a blog post today. :) I'll leave you with a quick photo recap of our activities in the past two weeks:

Family trip to L.A. for early Thanksgiving!

More next time :)

"Looks like you're not happy, 'less I open a vein!"

Back on the East coast, I felt a bit like Seymour when it came to growing plants. Never did get to the point of feeding them blood... But here on the West coast Ed and I seem to be having a lot more success! I've taken another step towards turning into my Omi, spending my day moving plants around to follow the sun, running pots up and down stairs and re-configuring things to water. It feels great to get things growing. I've been told you could plant a 2x4 in the ground out here and it'd bloom, but still, I'd like to think we're at least partially to blame for all the greenery around us. Ed has masterminded a grow station for us to use on the not so sunny days:

The top picture is the grow station (which looks a little different now, we added a second light on the bottom and traded out some of those plants for new seedlings), the middle is our herb wall on the back porch, and the bottom picture has our main chives plant and the healthier of the sweet peas. Outside we have a cat-mint plant, rosemary and two more pea plants. Ed's working on growing cabbage and we may even get really ambitious and try a potato planter. Building and setting that up will be a small adventure! (Something like this in theory: http://www.re-nest.com/re-nest/gardening/how-to-grow-100-pounds-of-potatoes-in-4-square-feet-081760) I cannot express how nice it is to have green things around. Fresh veggies and fruit laid out on the counter, fresh herbs growing within eyesight, and the smell of the peppermint when I water it? It's just such a calming, clean feeling. I suppose at some point I'll have to fill everyone in on Ed and I's fantasy future (but if you want a general idea it'd be something like Beekman Boys minus the commercialism and the stylishness). But that's for another entry!

Aside from growing, it's been quiet. I've been doing an excessive amount of research for the wedding. Can anyone explain to me why weddings are so ridiculously expensive and pressure-filled with 'should-haves'?? Anyone? How do people not have nervous breakdowns about this stuff!? I have nightmares about there being food, but no seats. Or seats, but no food or music. Or food and music and seats and flowers but 5 five guests. I mean... how does everyone include everything? Maybe I'll make the next post about wedding ideas and where things stand with that (disclaimer - I won't post often about the wedding because I find it much more fun and relaxing and interesting to talk about everything else I'm into :) )

Follow-up on the weight loss: 
Exercising is still coming along. I still want to die after working out, but I'm at least doing it. The diet part... Well. That's not coming along as great.... I've decided to start trying one vegetarian meal a week for dinner, any suggestions readers? I've added oatmeal back into my mornings and I feel like that should Oh! I almost forgot, in regards to exercise, I've been using the Wii to track my progress and trying some new video games and well, um, how come no one told me how freaking AMAZING Just Dance 3 is?!?! That is on my x-mas wish list for sure! Any game that has the choreography to Robin Sparkles "Let's Go To the Mall" from How I Met Your Mother is a WIN in my book.